Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 09:41 AM

thanks for that link, JJ, & to those who thought of the idea & carried it out.

sandra

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: JJ
Date: 21 Jun 08 - 09:31 AM

They say you've lived in New York too long when you can see "The Diary of Anne Frank" and think, "Hey, that doesn't look too bad!"

The tenement museum had a similar effect on my friend and me -- a lot more square footage than a lot of present-day NYC apartments. She pointed out the tub in the kitchen to the guide, who had glossed over it. My friend had had one in her kitchen on Chrystie St., not 20 years ago.

Also recommended for those of Irish extraction visiting New York: the Irish Hunger Memorial.

http://www.inetours.com/New_York/Pages/Irish_Hunger.html

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 21 Jun 08 - 07:57 AM

Why the "IRISH" part?

Seems either naive or racist in a world where South American immigrants, Asian immigrants, Eastern European immigrants...in TODAY'S United States live in similar or worse conditions.

You should see what is happening in Dubai with the Indian and Phillipineo workers.

Try a read of muckracker Upton Sinclare (The Jungle) or many other of his.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: mg
Date: 21 Jun 08 - 03:48 AM

I read something..one rooma bout 12 X 12..one family in each corner and a single person in the middle.

The crowding in these places was unbelievable...my bedroom, about 9 X 10 might have housed a dozen men...some with TB.

I came across some web site I was looking for again and never found..the five points..five corners?? really bad slum...they lived in sewers..children never saw the light of day untilt hey were several years old...absolutely worse than I could have ever thought. mg

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: Barry Finn
Date: 21 Jun 08 - 02:59 AM

MIssed it Kat, thanks I'll have to go back for a more indepth look

Barry

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: mg
Date: 21 Jun 08 - 12:38 AM

read how the other half lived. mg

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 10:35 PM

Barry, did you see this bit:

Early in the tour, visitors listen to nineteenth century Irish songs, splendidly performed by my friends Dan Milner and Mick Moloney, which convey the immigrant experience. At the same time, pictures are projected on an interior window.

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: artbrooks
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 10:18 PM

My great-grandmother, Mary Fitzgerald Dugard, raised several children in a similar place a few decades later - I'm pretty sure she had indoor plumbing, though.

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 08:55 PM

I think I spent about half an hour on the site & the museum site, many thanks for the link.

I can't understand the size of the apartments - sq. feet doesn't help - how many bedrooms did they have & how many folks fitted into said bedrooms.

The rooms on show don't look very crowded, are there any floorplans so I can get an idea of how the tenament building were set up. I just loooove the idea of law sez. ya gotta have windows, so let's build 'em between rooms! Any idea how the building managed to stay empty for so many decades?

I've seen pics of other immigrant housing/slums where beds & tables & other furniture jostle each other & walls & floors look like more the unrenovated rooms.

Our Susannah Place is an 1844 working class terrace continually inhabited until the late 70's when it was taken over as a museum. Rooms in these houses have been restored to different periods & there are fantastic interactive display with oral history. Sorry I can's show you much of it as there ain't many pics on the www.

Why do Museum sites assume only folks planning to visit need to look at the site? text of a tour and a few pictures here

I've taken a lot of pics of the back yards & surrounding area, which is Sydney's oldest settlement, maybe I need to go back to the Museum & take some pics inside.

sandra

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 08:16 PM

Thanks, Dan.

hard to believe music and happiness sometimes came out of those places, isn't it?

Seamus

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: Barry Finn
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 04:38 PM

Looks like my house in phases over the past 10 yrs. Thanks for the links Dan, if I ever get back down your way it looks as if it's an exhibit that's well worth taking in. Any way they'll incoporate your music into the exhibit, all the more reason to drop in?

Barry

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 04:11 PM

I have several favourite novels which I've read over the years which describe the conditions and lives of immigrants in NYC in those days. Incredible stories...I would like to visit the museum, though I would probably cry throughout the whole tour. Thanks for letting us know about it.

Subject: RE: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: Big Mick
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 04:03 PM

I am going to be in the NYC area in August, I believe. I sure hope to stop and see this exhibit, my friend. I have one question. Who are these fella's, Milner and Moloney? They any good? .....***chuckle***.....

Thanks for letting us know of this.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: Irish Exhibit - Tenement Museum in NYC
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 20 Jun 08 - 02:42 PM

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City already has restored apartments depicting the lives of German, Italian and Jewish immigrants in the second half of the 19th century. A new exhibit showing the home of the Moore's, a period Irish family that actually lived in the tenement in 1869, has just opened. It is quite a story. Take a look at Moores' 1869 apartment if you have a moment.

All the best,
Dan Milner